


Where Lies A Home

by XtaticPearl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Banter, M/M, Pining, Reconciliation, Romantic Friendship, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 18:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18643630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: They're in the middle of the most complicated and risky fight of their lives, placing their bets on a distant memory right now, and basically in deep trouble if the plan doesn't work out. Steve knows he should be stressed and somewhere in the corner of his mind, he is a little. Mostly though, he's having fun and strangely, so is Tony.





	Where Lies A Home

**Author's Note:**

> ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. 
> 
> Also, I've tagged it as romantic friendship because you see hints of 'it could have been' scenarios so it's more of a missed chance in a way.

"It won't fit you," Tony said patiently, eyeing the suit and then shifting his gaze to Steve's torso, "We are not going to be in a role-play stripper scenario here, alright?"

"You were the one who grabbed it," Steve reminded as he passed the set back to Tony with a sigh. The closet was fairly spacious but not enough for two grown men to strategize a heist operation while trying on stolen clothes. He considered their angle for a minute, Tony crouched against the other end and trying to pull Steve's pants up in vain. It was only a matter of time before one of them tripped or pushed the other and the heat really was making his back sweat. 

Nudging Tony's knee with his foot, Steve swiftly slid out of the pants himself as the other man got to his feet and grimaced lightly at the dust on his knees. The suit Tony had taken for himself fit him perfectly, not the way a bespoke tailored one would but well-enough to avoid double-glances on their way in. Steve glanced behind Tony over his shoulder and shuffled his feet in the same spot as he calculated the ticking time. 

"You got anything else?" he asked but Tony shook his head even as he rummaged the bag he had taken from some poor soul's car on their way to this hiding spot. They had been lucky that the place was bustling with visitors, mostly scientists or experts from institutions that SHIELD kept ties with for its thinktank. 

"Maybe I could go do the job alone and -" Tony let the sentence peter out at Steve's dry look and crossed his arms in resignation, "- or not, that's fine too. You know, we could just have you run half-naked through the place and create a distraction. That would be a pretty good one."

"That's not a good definition of a heist," Steve replied even as he bit back a grin at Tony's raised eyebrow, "There's got to be another way."

Tony looked at the floor and around their feet before zeroing in on something that made him smile slowly. 

"Tell you what," he said as he met Steve's eyes with an unholy grin that always led to either unmitigated chaos or sheer genius, never in between, "I think we found one."

Five minutes later they were walking into the outer compound of one of the most strongly guarded security facilities of the 70's and Steve was really glad that his pants were roomier this time. The sweltering heat was doing no favours to those in the sunny grounds and it helped them be more inconspicuous than they would normally have looked. Steve kept close to Tony and resisted the urge to lower his cap as they passed SHIELD personnel, scanning the area for any familiar faces to avoid. 

"Just to confirm," Tony asked as he glanced over another window which carried the familiar logo and details of Camp Lehigh, "this isn't actually the place that you were born, right?"

It had once made Steve uncomfortable, the promotion of the place being done based on his creation, the disturbing objectification making him want to cringe at times. However, he had seen worse by now and thought this negligible to some things that were branded into his memory as much more embarrassing. 

"The idea of me was," he replied and quietly kept watch of those who would spare Tony a second glance as they passed. It was the beard, he knew, but it never hurt to be a bit extra careful at times. 

"So, where would a quasi-fascistic high security organization keep extremely confidential and dangerous alien projects?" Tony asked as he peered through the windows they walked past before coming to a halt at the end of the corridor. Steve caught sight of the familiar barracks that Tony was gazing at now and exhaled lightly, knowing the answer. 

"In plain sight," he realized, nodding in the direction of SHIELD agents entering the oddly situated building and waited as Tony slyly scanned for heat signatures. Tony stuffed his hands in his pockets and shot Steve a quick glance in confirmation of their target. 

"You know, the other day," Tony said as they walked over to the barrack's door, briefcase lightly swinging in one hand, "Morgan said the wildest thing."

"Hm?"

"Apparently she loves me 3000," Tony replied in a voice that went softer in remembered amusement, fondness ringing through his tone. 

"How much did _you_ tell her?" Steve asked in reply, keeping his steps casual and matching Tony's pace. 

"A ton. You know, like a normal person," Tony said with the undertone of a laugh that he was swallowing. It had been a long time since Steve had heard him speak with this ease and with so much love for someone. Being a creator had always been Tony's calling but being a father had let him come alive in ways that made Steve's heart ache with both fond happiness and an accepted bittersweet shadow. He hadn't lied when he had told Tony that he was happy for him. Morgan was precious in every possible way and there was nothing more beautiful than knowing that Tony had found people to love as much as he had always wanted to give. 

It was a fragile peace that had been earned and built with painful care. Steve respected that. He was simply lost himself, in footing and misplaced feelings. 

Time had never really been his loyal friend and honesty hadn't been his strongest suit when it came to certain matters that would lay buried more pressing issues. Steve was used to that and almost six years of practice made it easier to accept it. 

"She's smarter then," Steve quipped and let his lips quirk into a smile as they approached the elevator, "You ready?"

"Don't have much of a choice I'd say," Tony cleared his throat lightly before subtly relaxing his shoulders as the doors opened to let them in. There was a single occupant in the enclosure and both of them tried to avoid eye contact with her as they stood waiting for their respective floors to come. 

Steve could feel the gaze of the woman linger on him for a second too long and resisted the urge to turn his face in a much too obvious show of suspicion. Before she could look closer though, Tony took a step forward, blocking her view of Steve and protecting him for the time being. An alert announced the arrival of Tony's floor first and Steve flexed his right palm imperceptibly as Tony exited the elevator. 

"Well," Tony called out in an abruptly loud voice, "Good luck on your mission, Captain."

Steve shot him a death glare but adjusted his expression in time before stuttering out an answer. 

"Good luck on your project, uh, Doctor," he wished out loud and held Tony's gaze with a knowing look as the doors closed. Sometimes he forgot the mischief that came with working alongside the man and Steve felt himself biting back a grin involuntarily. 

It was sheer luck that he didn't encounter any additional issues on his way from there on, and Steve kept a low profile in his delivery uniform. It was fairly easy to find an unoccupied room with a phone and Steve rummaged through the phone directory taped to the wall to find the extension of Hank Pym's lab. If he played it vague and used broken information from what Tony had remembered of Project GOLIATH, it wouldn't take long to get Dr. Pym out of his lab and running for the basement. 

Just as planned, Steve was walking into the lab exactly 70 seconds later and felt a moment of pride for his spy work. Natasha always teased him about being too obvious at it but he had managed things quite well so far. He spared a thought for Tony and pushed it away, reassuring himself that the man would be able to sneak or distract his way out of a situation if need sprang up. He had done it with Fury before. This shouldn't be worse. 

Focusing on his own mission, Steve grabbed the vials of Pym Particles and slipped out of the lab without being detected. He was halfway down the corridor when he spotted guards walking towards him alongside the lady who had ridden the elevator with them before. 

"And you've never seen them before?" one of them asked the woman who looked sharp as she matched their pace. 

"No but I've got a good eye for this," she replied, making Steve's stomach drop a little, "One of them had a strange beard. Like one of them hippies."

 _Why is it always the beard_ , Steve thought to himself in exasperation before ducking out of sight and scanning his surrounding for a hideout till he could escape. He tried to keep his gait and pace as normal as possible as he walked away from his would-be captors till he found the first door that seemed unlocked. Grabbing it open, he slipped into the room and listened for the footsteps of the guards passing through. It would take them a minimum of three minutes to put the place on lockdown if suspicions were strengthened and a maximum of seven minutes to -

Steve stared at the picture that broke his train of thought and blinked. It couldn't be. How was it possible? 

He slowly turned to look at the door he had entered and read the name on it with dawning realization before turning back to look at his old picture staring at him from the desk. 

There was a sound of someone entering on the other side of the office and Steve looked through the blinds with his heart pounding. 

Peggy. Alive. In front of him. 

The small streaks of grey at her roots, the deep red of her mildly smudged lipstick, a chalk stain along her left sleeve, chipped nail polish of the index finger; there were so many details to absorb in every passing frame of the moment and even those seemed too less as Steve stood frozen to the spot in a dark room across a busy Peggy. A life too vastly spinning on her heels, she was held attentive by whatever file she read in haste and before Steve could form or bite back a thought it was over. Just as she had entered, she was gone, and with her the reminder of a past where Steve had been more inclined to be seen. Not Captain America, but Steve. 

Like the scrawny but braver man whose photograph sat on the desk of Director Margaret Carter. 

Steve felt the shuddering storm of a million turmoils threaten to overwhelm his balance and swallowed hard. One moment. A single moment of regrets and reaction was all he could afford. 

It took him a minute to swallow her memories back down. He didn't bother to address the echoing ache of another missed chance that he would have to return home after this. There were somethings that didn't have an ending, an off switch. They were only upgraded to more potent forms or versions of their intensity when least expected.

Love, in Steve's experience, was the most painful of those. It was ironic then that it was also that which kept him going when nothing else made sense. 

He shut the blinds on an empty room and exited to go back to Tony, where another kind of emptiness lay that he had learnt to keep low. 

When he finally tracked Tony down, he saw him with another man who left another jolt of familiarity in Steve. Howard had never been the closest when they had been friends but Steve had lost many friends who had proven to mean more after their loss. It was strange to count Howard as one of those now but maybe that was okay, Steve decided as he caught Tony's eye and gestured at his wrist. Maybe memories were easier to navigate than possibilities. 

Steve felt his face ease into a softer expression when he watched Tony hug his father from a distance. They had spoken very less of it and not very well when they _had_ but it had been one of his quiet regrets that Tony hadn't been able to feel as comfortable with Howard as any son deserved to. He knew rationally that it was not in his control or past actions to have led anyone to that situation but logic rarely played a part in emotional guilt, something Steve had become intimately familiar with over the past few years. 

Tony gave a short wave to Howard and finally turned towards Steve, walking without looking back at his father. 

"You got it?" Steve asked, purposefully not addressing the expression on Tony's face as he let the man take a minute to process whatever he had talked about. 

"Yeah," Tony said softly and Steve felt a pang of echoing understanding in his heart before Tony continued in a stronger voice, "Uh, yeah, got it. One Tesseract in the bag. You have the vials?"

Steve nodded and felt an air of unobtrusive awkwardness settle as they walked beside each other towards the exit. It would be too risky to depart in open view of a crowd and they had agreed beforehand on the spot where they would do it. 

It wasn't a long walk but it felt longer as both men tried to sort out their thoughts from their brief brush with personal histories. 

"Mom's pregnant," Tony said suddenly and Steve blinked in surprise at the topic of conversation before nodding. 

"I guessed," he replied, smiling slightly when Tony shot him a questioning look, "Your birthday comes next month, right? Well, here at least."

"That -" Tony blinked rapidly a couple of times before a reluctantly approving smile lit up his face, "- is correct. Nice of you to remember there, Captain Rogers."

"How could I not?" Steve shook his head honestly and laughed when Tony raised an eyebrow, "It was one of the first things I learnt about you. SHIELD made sure that your birthday video of 2010 was on top of your profile material when I got your file, you know."

"And we still didn't figure out that they were assholes right then," Tony chuckled and Steve miraculously didn't suck in a surprised breath when their fingers brushed as they walked, "Yeah, it's next month here. Supposed to be. He - we were talking about it back there."

"I saw the flowers," Steve commented as they ducked out the gate fairly easily, "He seemed excited."

"He did, didn't he?" Tony said in a tone that suggested that it was mostly to himself, a sense of warm wonderment in the words. There were times when Steve wished that he had developed a more regular ease of being physically affectionate or reassuring with people. People closest to him, at least. It came easier when it was with Natasha, who was more forthright than expected at setting comfortable boundaries with friends. It was simpler with Sam, who didn't have qualms about initiating things or conversations unlike Steve. Bucky had gained experience on Steve's psyche through time and even though things were probably stiffer now between them, he was still a known area. 

With Tony, Steve was lost. Had probably always been or maybe had chosen to be, just so he could avoid the rushing realizations that would come with clarity. 

A whole lot of good that avoidance had done, Steve remembered in wry irony. 

"What about you?" he heard Tony ask and looked at him to see a curious expression, "You meet any ghosts of the past?"

And wasn't that on the nose as always? 

"Not really?" Steve hedged his answer but then shrugged and skipped his glance over Tony, "I saw Peggy. Didn't really meet her but - saw her."

Tony didn't reply and Steve savoured the silence for a minute. He didn't know what solace a reply would give and sometimes unsaid things were better relief. 

He barely resisted jumping when he felt a tentative pat on his back and shot Tony a look, seeing the man wear a small but strangely understanding smile. It wasn't loud but it meant more than any number of assurances and Steve nodded to himself as they continued their walk. 

"We're finally here," Steve said as they reached their jump point and Tony looked like he was about to say something important. There was something familiar and different in his eyes, something Steve had seen in the mirror on quiet days over the past seven years  He never knew if it was good or bad but it always seemed important, like a dismissed fate come to haunt. His reflection had changed in different ways over those seven years but that look was a frequent visitor and to see it in Tony's eyes was momentous in a way that made him catch his breath. 

"Yeah, we made it, I guess," Tony agreed and Steve knew that there were words missing in the conversation. Too many of them, lost or thrown away, locked away far from the tongue where the truth could have risked a safe bubble. There were broken thoughts between them and Steve knew that it should hurt but somehow it was calming now. Whatever path they could have taken, whatever another time could have seen, it wouldn't be here. It wouldn't be now. And that was -

Well, a chosen reality he supposed. Just as real as the fact that they were here, working together again. 

"Tony, -" Steve paused and he didn't know what the rest of the sentence wanted to become but there was something to be told and he had swallowed the words so many times that they didn't fit on his tongue right now. 

But Tony smiled, warmer than he would have in a safer but colder past. He smiled and Steve knew that the sentence would never find way into the open. 

"Let's go home?" Tony asked, holding out his fist with the time GPS strapped over his knuckles. It was not what could have been but Steve knew all about second chances and everyone had their own limit just as they had right to them. Tony had his second chance waiting for him in a time far away from now. Steve? Well, the one he was being offered wasn't so bad either. 

"Home," he agreed and held out his own hand to meet Tony's. Home sounded warm enough. 

 

 


End file.
